Playing with Pasta

The pork loin was in the oven and the guests had begun flocking to the back garden. In a sudden fit of turtle-like effacement I found myself not wanting to socialize but instead to hide in the kitchen, ensconced in a voluminous Swedish apron, rolling fresh pasta. However, several junior guests would not allow this, and soon I found myself the center of a small cluster of wide-eyed on-lookers. They were mesmerized by the process of rolling and cutting the pasta dough, watching intensely as I threaded, folded, and threaded again; gradually transforming the rough ball into a paper-thin sheet which I then shredded into strands of fettuccini.

Elijah, a little boy with a head of tight black curls, hurled a volley of questions at me: what was I doing? Why did it have to be rolled so many times? Was it not thin enough yet? And he appeared so entranced when I finally shredded a sheet of dough, that my heart and desire for hermitage melted and I offered to let him have a go.

Alas I should have remembered that children are sticklers for equal distribution of goods and services, and I soon found myself teaching the whole cluster of kids how to roll pasta. Now I don’t consider myself to be one of those women who is inherently good with kids, or particularly motherly, but as I helped the determined little Phoebe press a wad of pasta through the machine I suddenly found myself immensely gratified by the whole process. Perhaps the rather maternal Swedish apron I wore (which looks more like a frilly Mexican peasant dress than anything else) was subtly influencing my mind; or perhaps my raw wrangle of emotions was responsible. Either way, that evening socializing with children seemed a haven of comfort and sustenance.

Later I took off my apron, bolstered my courage with a glass of red, and went outside to socialize with the rest of the guests. But looking back on the evening, the thing that really etched itself into my memory is standing in the kitchen with those eager kids, playing gleefully with dough and rolling pasta together.